A short lesson in Yiddish introduces tsuris (big problems) and kvetching (complaining) to a young, dinosaur-loving audience in this humorous debut from author Joseph and illustrator Case (Puppy Drama, 2016, etc.).
In Joseph’s first-person narration, he explains how, in his Bronx neighborhood, his relatives competed over who had the worst tsuris. Joseph used that lifelong “tsuris training” to develop a tale for his daughter. According to Joseph, when all the other dinosaurs went extinct, the smallest, most dangerous dinosaur survived: the TyrantoCrankaTsuris. When she got sick of how the other dinosaurs bragged about their strength, she let out a wail of complaints that sent the other dinosaurs packing. Her complaints even made the whole planet go dark! Luckily, one other dinosaur, the TyrantoKvetchaTsuris, survived as well, and the pair became the ancestors of humanity. Joseph uses the tall tale to explain that humans should never get too cranky or complain too loudly or they might cause yet another creature’s extinction. Fictional science aside, the delivery and repetition of the real kvetching from Joseph’s family in the TyrantoKvetchaTsuris’ litany of complaints will be laugh-out-loud funny for adults, who may have to translate it for their kids. Case’s cartoonish caricatures and silly saurians, all set against simple backgrounds, capture the comical tone.
Kids may not always get the humor, but the multigenerational aspects make this a good choice for reading aloud.Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64307-157-2
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Mascot Books
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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With a little help from his audience, a young storyteller gets over a solid case of writer’s block in this engaging debut.
Despite the (sometimes creatively spelled) examples produced by all his classmates and the teacher’s assertion that “Stories are everywhere!” Ralph can’t get past putting his name at the top of his paper. One day, lying under the desk in despair, he remembers finding an inchworm in the park. That’s all he has, though, until his classmates’ questions—“Did it feel squishy?” “Did your mom let you keep it?” “Did you name it?”—open the floodgates for a rousing yarn featuring an interloping toddler, a broad comic turn and a dramatic rescue. Hanlon illustrates the episode with childlike scenes done in transparent colors, featuring friendly-looking children with big smiles and widely spaced button eyes. The narrative text is printed in standard type, but the children’s dialogue is rendered in hand-lettered printing within speech balloons. The episode is enhanced with a page of elementary writing tips and the tantalizing titles of his many subsequent stories (“When I Ate Too Much Spaghetti,” “The Scariest Hamster,” “When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me,” etc.) on the back endpapers.
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0761461807
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This companion piece to the other fairy tales Marcia Brown has interpreted (see Puss In Boots, 1952, p. 548 and others) has the smoothness of a good translation and a unique charm to her feathery light pictures. The pictures have been done in sunset colors and the spreads on each page as they illustrate the story have the cumulative effect of soft cloud banks. Gentle.
Pub Date: June 15, 1954
ISBN: 0684126761
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1954
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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